Synesthesia

[greencat]

My DD8 and I were talking about people with other senses some people may have, such as psychics who works with police to solve crime, Medical Intuitists who can tell the illness on the other, Sixth Sense, Premonitions, etc., etc. Then I found that she sees colors and shapes when she hears music and sound. She sees numbers, alphabets and music notes in colors as well. I am still finding out about this complex vision she has in her mind. We are invited to the Psychology department at University. Does any one homeschools a child with this rare senses?

[mangopassion]

Yes, both of my kiddos have synesthesia. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find very much information about it. Apparently, there just hasn't been too much research on it. (??)

[Bokonon]

I have this, and only found out that it's unusual a couple of years ago, LOL. I always assumed that everyone thought like that, but never said anything about it. A friend recommended this book to me, but I haven't read it yet:
http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Cats-Char...960180&sr=1-11

[moominmamma]

Yes, I have synaesthetic experiences, as does my brother. We only found out that it was unusual a decade or so ago. For me it's not intrusive at all, just the sort of general understanding that 8 is deep purple, 3 is brown, and B-flat is a forest green oval, but sometimes I get unusually strong new associations that jump into my mind, for instance, upon listening to a new piece of music in an undistracting environment, and they take me aback. In a nice way.

Two of my kids have very strong opinions about the colours of certain numbers, the colours of certain sounds and such. It's hard to know whether these are free-flowing imaginative associations or entirely unbidden sensory crossovers, since I can't see into their minds. But I think as difficult as synaesthesia is to define, it's likely more common than we think. Last week at our violin group class I asked the 16 assembled kids what colour or shape or image a certain phrase reminded them of and one of them (not one of my offspring) said "But it is blue, it just is! It's always been blue, ever since I first heard it. Like, a kind of sky-blue. The rest of you are just wrong!" She was laughing; at 15 she realizes these inner experiences are subjective, but in her mind that phrase was very much giving her the experience of blueness, unbidden. So that is three of the assembled 16 kids who I know have these associations.

Miranda

[staceychev]

I had a hard time naming DD2 because we wanted Josephine, but it's a drab-brownish name (because of the J, mostly). We settled on an E-name, which I'm much happier with, color-wise.

Unless it's extreme, I don't think it would change your schooling at all. It's a cool cocktail party story, though!

[Roar]

Yes, we have some of that going on at our house too.

http://www.synesthete.org/ There is an online test for synesthesia here.

Also, if you'd like a little window into the mind of a really fascinating person with a very extreme version of synesthesia (an autistic savant) I would suggest the book Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet. http://www.amazon.com/Born-Blue-Day-.../dp/1416535071

[shishkeberry]

I'm a synnie! As far as I can tell my son isn't, but synesthesia is a topic near and dear to my heart so I had to crash in here

http://www.mixsig.net/nexus/index.php

That's a forum for people with synesthesia, but there is a board for syn support and dialogue. I'm pretty sure I've seen posts from people that are parents of synnies. They can help you out with your questions there.

I always assumed that everyone thought like that, but never said anything about it.

Ha, me too

[Savoir Faire]

John Mayer has synthesia with music....a lot of very talented people have it.

[annettemarie]

There's a great book called "The Man Who Tasted Shapes" (I think). I actually was in contact with the author because I have synthesia as well. For something supposedly so rare, I've run into lots of people who have it.

[mangopassion]

Originally Posted by Savoir Faire

....a lot of very talented people have it.

absolutely!

[MamaMonica]

I had thought that everyone perceived things this way until I was in fourth grade and commented to another girl about it and she looked at me like I was really strange. Both my kids perceive days of the week as color etc. I used to solve math problems in elementary school and also physics in junior high by feeling the numbers- there was a cloud and I moved things around by feel and solved them correctly by feeling the answer in color and weight.

So I knew I was a little odd because every time I brought it up people looked at me like I made no sense

It is interesting that there is a name for this and so many have it.

[greencat]

Thank you for listing your experience, book titles and links. That is extremely helpful to explore related issues before we meet the professor and his colleagues. We have an appointment on May 10th. I will post updates after our initial consultation with these scientists, and let you know if we are going to let them conduct experiments on our DD8. However, let me just say, my husband is not very jazzed about this.

When I contacted an old professor of mine, he mentioned it is a trait that runs strongly in a family. I don't have any in my side, but my husband's sister has a daughter who had explained "Studying languages are like texture" to her. My mother in law did not understand what that meant, until now. The niece (to my DD) is now in college studying German, French and Japanese. At this time, I am trying to figure out, if my SD6 has it or not.

I think, many grow up, thinking this is a normal thing. I had a friend who did not know she was (severe) color blind, until a friend said "Look at those big (red) apples on the tree!" She was close to 40 years old when she discovered she was color blind.

My husband is not very enthusiastic to go meet the scientists, and hand out our daughter to be tested. In all honesty, I may have felt the same intrusiveness, if I did not know the professor. He is one of the few who is still at the university from my day of student life. Luckily, his area of study is in Cognition and Neuro-Psychology. I hope he (and/or his colleague) can figure an experiment that is most beneficial to my daughter.

Another reason I don't mind to test my daughter is that the way she sees these colors seems to be very complex. She sees different shapes and colors according to different situation, and a sense of taste seems to enhance the colors as well. She explained listening to music and studying math can be a bit confusing, due to too many colors appearing in her mind. If she is listening to "Red" music, and sees bloody figure on T.V., that is very scary. Watching movie at theater is also too many colors at once, and she need to watch the same movies more than once to enjoy. After all, how do you explain what sound or colors is to a deaf and blind, especially if you are eight years old? I'm hoping the tests will let me understand how she sees sounds to benefit her.

I am going to sign up to the web board for Synnies. Thank you for the link. And, thank you everyone for answering on this web-board.


greencat >^..^<

[greencat]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

I hope you can read this.
According to this, 1 in 23 people have Synesthesia.

[annettemarie]

Originally Posted by greencat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

I hope you can read this.
According to this, 1 in 23 people have Synesthesia.

Interesting. According to The Man Who Tasted Shapes, it's 10 people in a million who have it.

[greencat]

I know. I wondered about the number, myself.

[greenmamapagan]

Originally Posted by annettemarie

Interesting. According to The Man Who Tasted Shapes, it's 10 people in a million who have it.

Personally I think that's wrong. DH and I both have synathestic experiences and both of us just assumed it was normal until we were doing post-graduate study in music and learning about Kandinsky and De Hartmann. We looked at each other and said "What do you mean people don't hear colours and see smells in music?" We both just assumed it was normal. Although I remember as a teen mentioning to a friend that a song on the radio was "too brown" and she looked at me as though I'd gone insane.
I'm sure a lot of people also assume it's normal as we did and therefore aren't counted in that number...

[Bokonon]

Originally Posted by staceychev

I had a hard time naming DD2 because we wanted Josephine, but it's a drab-brownish name (because of the J, mostly). We settled on an E-name, which I'm much happier with, color-wise.

Unless it's extreme, I don't think it would change your schooling at all. It's a cool cocktail party story, though!

LOL, I couldn't use a name with the letter "R" in it because it's just too red (and not because of the letter)!

[mangopassion]

From what I understand synesthesia is hereditary, though neither my hubby nor myself have any experiences with it. My daughter on the other hand, who is extremely talented and creative, has a lot of experiences. Each number has a different personality and therefore she has a hard time relating the numbers to each other if they don't "get along". Each letter of the alphabet has it's own color. Colors have different tastes. People are different colors... there's so many experiences that she has that I have a hard time listing them. It's quite fascinating to me and I'd love to read more about it and how people that have studied it conclude the brain works in Synnies. I feel like my daughter learns differently because of it... especially when it comes to math and the numbers not liking each other.

[maurice]

As far as how many people have it, I think you will get wildly different numbers from different places because it isn't binary. Some people have it to the extreme, where others are only mild. In fact, it has been theorized that everyone has it at least a little bit.

Examples I have heard that are common,

"that shirt is loud." , "this cheese tastes sharp" "I'm having a blue day"

[caij_rose]

I have it. From the time i started learning the letters and numbers, i have associated each with a gender and a personality, it made it way more interesting learning it. the year 2010 is a male, and the year 2009 was a female. I only realized that not everybody has this until a couple of years ago. i think my dad might have it too.
I also have colour synesthesia as well. the Ss and Ii are yellow have always been yellow.
and i agree the name Josephine is a brown.